Texas lost the SEC title on Saturday, but the Longhorns believe it would be a mistake to count them out of the College Football Playoff or the national championship.
At least, that’s how coach Steve Sarkisian feels. Texas fans can’t imagine being left out of the playoff.
“The beauty for us is this stings, it’s hard, but we get a chance to regroup in a couple weeks and get into the College Football Playoff and go compete for a national championship,” Sarkisian said after Texas’ 22-19 overtime loss to Georgia in the Southeastern Conference championship game.
Texas will find out who they will play and where when the final CFP rankings for the 12-team field are announced on Sunday.
“I think we’re plenty good enough to go win” it all, Sarkisian said, “but we’re going to need to get healthy so we can put our best foot forward to make that happen.”
One reason the Longhorns feel confident after the loss is they know they had chances to beat Georgia in the first half and statistically outplayed the Bulldogs. Texas stopped itself throughout the game with penalties (11 for 94 yards) that ruined scoring drives and erased turnovers they had created.
“The penalties were an issue in the first half where we stalled out on some things and in some third-and-longs and whatnot,” Sarkisian said. “Our defense played a fantastic first half. I think it was like 260 yards to 54. But the score was 6-3.
“Clearly we weren’t capitalizing on the opportunities we had.”
Texas came into Saturday’s game against Georgia ranked No. 2 in the CFP and was looking to get back at the Bulldogs for their only loss of the season. Instead, they left Mercedes-Benz Stadium with a second loss to Georgia.
The Bulldogs scored 19 points in the second half with backup quarterback Gunner Stockton, after starter Carson Beck was injured on the final play of the first half and couldn’t return. Beck did come back for the last play, handing the ball to Trevor Etienne, who ran 4 yards for the winning touchdown.
The Longhorns were upset with themselves after letting a winnable game slip away but are still hopeful about their chances of winning the championship.
Cornerback Jahdae Barron said the main reason for the team’s optimism is Sarkisian.
Barron said the Longhorns are in a good mental place “just because of the level of the culture that ‘Sark’ created here. Knowing we still in it, we still have (the) opportunity to make things right.
“It can’t just be poor me’s for the next two weeks,” Barron added. “You got to get back to work. We’ll fix what we need to fix.”
Texas missed a chance for a bye week and will now have to win one more game to secure the title. Quarterback Quinn Ewers isn’t worried.
“We’re built for the moments we’re going into,” Ewers said. “I have no doubt each and every guy in that room believes the same thing I’m saying right now. I said it earlier this season, it’s 10% what happens, 90% how you react to it.
“I think we do a good job of handling adversity.”
